31 Day Challenge - The Home Stretch!

Hi guys!

Here is my round-up of the final part of the 31 Day Challenge. I had such a good time doing this challenge, and now I'm worried that I won't be able to create any new designs without some sort of prompt haha!

Day 21- Inspired By A Colour - Seventeen 'Smoke Signal'

Day 22 - Inspired By A Song - Chance The Rapper 'Sunday Candy'

Day 23 - Inspired By A Movie - Big Hero 6

Day 24 - Inspired By A Book - PS I Love You

Day 25 - Inspired By Fashion - Vivienne Westwood

Day 27 - Inspired By A Pattern - Houndstooth

Day 28 - Inspired By Artwork - Mondrian

Day 29 - Inspired By A Flag - Pride Flag

Day 30 - Inspired By The Supernatural - Fairies

Day 31 - Honour Nails You <3 - @simplynailogical and @spejldame

September 2015 MeeBox **Nail Art and Review**

Hi folks!

Sorry I've been so quiet over the last couple of weeks, I've unfortunately been quite unwell and although the doctors still don't know what is wrong with me, I am finally starting to feel better thanks to a cocktail of medication!





Today's post is a review of September's MeeBox. For those who don't know, MeeBox is a monthly nails only subscription box. This is super appealing to people like me who love nails but not necessarily 'beauty' products which are often found in other similar subscription boxes. MeeBox promise to provide hand selected products to fit the theme of the month, averaging, 4-5 products including polishes, nail tools, nail and hand care items and decorations. This month's theme is 'Hello Sailor', and I have to say that I am very happy with the products in this box!

September's MeeBox features a whole host of nautical themed goodies, including three polishes, nail vinyls, nail wraps, and cute little charms to dress up your mani!

First let's look at the polishes: blue, white and red - very nautical! But, these aren't your average polishes. The girls at MeeBox have really thought hard about which shades to put in this box. First we have Nails Inc. 'Old Burlington Street' which is a gorgeous navy blue creme. One coat of this polish over a white base gives a slightly brighter pop of colour, however it is a richer shade when applied as two coats on the nail. As always, Nails Inc. polishes are great quality, and this shade is no exception. 

Next we have Cassella 'Limitless' a bright white creme. I have never used any Cassella polishes before, as they are a fairly new UK indie lacquer brand (yes, MeeBox includes indies! OMG!), and I am impressed with the quality. I'm always on the hunt for a great one-coat white, and I think this polish ticks that box. Now, I am a bit of a scared-y cat when it comes to polishing my nails, and I prefer to err on the side of caution and go with multiple thinner coats instead of one thicker coat when applying. This white is perfect for either application method, and although I used two coats this was completely down to personal preference. It's a crisp white shade with a good amount of self-levelling on the nail, and even showed up nice an bright when used as accents over another colour. I'll definitely be purchasing this polish (and more!) from Cassella in the future.

Finally we have my favourite polish of the set! When I first looked at this one I did question why it was included in the box. I mean, it is a red polish, but it just didn't seem to fit. How wrong I was! Crabtree & Evelyn 'Tomato' is such a beautiful shade that I just know that I'll be wearing it all throughout the coming autumn and winter months. It's a gorgeous bright red creme with an insane amount of golden-bronze shimmer running throughout. Absolutely stunning! In terms of how well it fits with the other items in the MeeBox, I can totally see why it's been included. The golden shimmer is obvious enough to really highlight and accentuate any gold you may have included on your nails, but subtle enough to play the part of the 'red' polish in a nautical mani. This polish has the best formula of the three, applying perfectly in one coat. I added an extra coat for ultra-shimmer!

Alongside the lovely lacquers were some straight nail vinyls from nail-MAIL. I'm slowly becoming a convert to nail vinyls as they are super easy and efficient to use, and much less fiddly than striping tape! I found these vinyls to be of great quality, if just a little bit too sticky (nothing that a quick stick to the back of my hand won't sort out!) I used these in this manicure and as you can see the lines are clean and they didn't lift my base polish at all. I did have a bit of an issue with polish pooling under the vinyl, however this is totally my fault - don't forget to stick them down firmly at the sides of your nail, ladies!

Next up are some awesome NCLA Nautical Nail Wraps which I squealed at when I saw them! I have been wanting some NCLA wraps for-EVER, and these ones are just so cute! Perfect for a lazy mani day :) Although I haven't yet used these wraps, I wanted to include them in my mani somehow and so I chose to recreate a couple of the designs on my nails. I'll be sure to include a separate blog post when I get around to testing them out!

And finally, last but by no means least, are these absolutely adorable gold anchor charms from UK-based She Sells Seashells. I've placed orders with She Sells Seashells before and they have such a great selection of charms and tools to help out with your mani-making! I love how these charms aren't too big, so they fit nicely on the nail (including short ones like mine are currently!) MeeBox leave you wanting for nothing as they even included a little bottle of nail glue. Amazing!

Overall, for £20 I cannot complain about this box - three gorgeous shades, plus all of the extras make this great value. 

And here is the design I made using products from this month's box. I LOVE how it turned out, and definitely am entering it into the MeeBox Challenge over on Instagram (just tag your mani #meeboxchallenge)

I hope you like this nail art and enjoyed the review. If you would like any extra info, feel free to leave a comment down below!


Thanks for reading!

Helen

Check out MeeBox on their website and Instagram
Check out Cassella on their website and Instagram 
Check out Crabtree & Evelyn on their website and Instagram
Check out She Sells SeaShells on their website and Instagram
Check out NCLA on their website and Instagram 

Glitter Jelly Sandwich Nail Art!

Hi everyone!

Today's mani is a super bright, super squishy neon jelly glitter sandwich! Woah!

I created this look by layering glitter polish between thin coats of jelly polish, which does take forever as you have to wait for each layer to dry before adding the next, but LOOK AT THE PRETTY!!! For this design I used Kandy Colors 'Retro' (blue), 'Hey Girl' (pink) and 'Carnival' (green) along with Nicole by OPI 'Party Bus' glitter. I picked up 'Party Bus' at TK Maxx for £3.99 and I'm so glad I didn't pay full price for it. Even though I absolutely love the polish, I unfortunately ended up spending a lot of time fishing out the bigger pieces of glitter which is so frustrating! Less clear base and more glitter please, Nicole by OPI!

No glitter jelly sandwich is complete without snapping a few close-ups, so here they are!:

I love jelly polishes and these ones from Kandy Colors really do have the 'wow factor'. But I'm always looking for more to add to my collection! What's your favourite jelly polish?

Thanks for reading!

Helen x

Butter London - Bargain Haul **Swatches**

Hi guys!

TK Maxx are selling Butter London! Naturally as soon as I found out about this I went to my local store to browse the goods on offer, and I wasn't disappointed. I managed to bag myself five Butter London polishes for under £25, which I'm sure you'll agree is an absolute bargain!

L-R: Blowing Raspberries / Jasper / Wellies / Fiver / Knees Up

First up is 'Blowing Raspberries' which is a gorgeous deep pink-leaning red. This was by far the best out of the bunch in terms of application and went on perfectly in two easy coats. Shown here is two coats plus topcoat.

Next up is 'Jasper', a pretty pastel yellow creme. This is three coats plus topcoat.

'Wellies' is my favourite! This one doesn't look like much in the bottle, and I very nearly didn't buy it, but on the nail it comes alive! Wellies is an almost-neon green which is just absolutely gorgeous. I just know that I am going to be wearing this colour all of the time! This is three coats plus topcoat.

Next up is 'Fiver', which I think might be my least favourite of the lot. It's a lovely pale blue shade with slight grey undertones, however I feel I have a few polishes that are very similar in my collection already. Not a winner, but still lovely all the same. Again, three coats plus topcoat.

Finally, I pounced on 'Knees Up' as I've seen this quite a few times in Boots and have always been tempted to buy it. For me this is the perfect festive red - a stunning shade with the faintest shimmer of orange-gold throughout. It truly is something special and I can't wait to use this towards Christmas time! This is two coats plus topcoat.

TK Maxx are currently selling all Butter London polishes for £3.99! Last time I checked, they were retailing at around £12-15 in other high street stores, so this is definitely a bargain price! I'm super happy that I finally have some Butter London in my collection, and can't wait to add more :)

Thanks for reading!

Helen x

Cherry Nail Art

Hi guys!

I neglected the Weekly Nail Art Challenge on Instagram towards the end of July, but I'm going to make sure I complete all of the prompts in August! I love that the prompts this month are colour combos, with the theme of summer. The weather has just started turning sour here, so I definitely need some summery nails to cheer myself up!

The first prompt this month is 'lemon and cherry', so I decided to make use of two of my untrieds (I'm slooowly making progress with getting through all of my polishes!). I used Sally Hansen 'Sweetie' and 'Cherry Drop' which are both textured polishes from the Sugar Coat collection. I bought these on a whim, and as I'm not big into textured finishes I found them a little yucky. I thought I was being clever when I added a coat of Sally Hansen InstaDry Topcoat to smooth things out a bit, but it just made them look all mushy...

The detail was added with Maybelline 'Red Record', Color Club 'French Tip' and Ciate 'Mojito'. This was my first attempt at anything fruit related, and although it's not perfect I kind of like my cartoon-y cherries :)

I picked up these polishes in Poundland for, that's right, £1! They retail at around £7 in other stores, which I find overpriced as I'm not much of a fan of these polishes. But for £1 I can't complain!

Thanks for reading!

Helen x

ILNP - Electric Carnival **Swatch**

Hi!

I am not going to say anything about this polish, I'll just let the pictures do the talking. This is 'Electric Carnival' multichrome flakie by ILNP <3:

Isn't it just beautiful?

Helen x